Officials with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) welcomed a delegation of Ukrainian leaders and water treatment experts to share knowledge and discuss water management issues in the wake of regime changes in Ukraine.
The visit was part of a brief U.S. tour involving Andrii Levus, member of Ukraine Parliament, and members of the SPR-Group, a Ukrainian company specializing in design, construction, reconstruction and upgrading of wastewater treatment facilities on a turnkey basis. Despite recent tensions in Ukraine, the SPR-Group reconstructed 12 water treatment plants that manage all phases of the treatment process under one roof to treat up to 119 million gal of water per day. Using environmentally friendly technology, the SPR-Group developed fully automated, odorless and silent facilities to manage water treatment on a small scale, providing a comparison to the MWRD, which handles the largest water treatment plant in the world at the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant (WRP), where 1.44 billion gal of water are treated daily.
"It is incredibly important to learn about these new technologies and how other parts of the world are developing new solutions in managing water resources. The ongoing work in Ukraine might be on a different scale and in a different context, but like Ukraine, we are all tasked with the same goals in improving our water quality and eliminating flooding," said President Mariyana Spyropoulos. "We appreciate our visit with the Mr. Levus and the SPR-Group and believe building a relationship with our counterparts will foster significant benefits."
Levus also visited the U.S./Ukraine Working Group Yearly Summit hosted by the Center for U.S.-Ukrainian Relations in Washington, D.C., and met with members of Congress and other officials at the White House. As part of its trip, the SPR-Group visited Michigan leaders and water treatment facility experts in the region as well as leaders in the Ukrainian-American community. The meetings were intended to prompt discussion about the SPR-Group's business model for water treatment and its vision for positive change in Ukraine.
Levus said, out of the post-Soviet Union countries, Ukraine is the leading nation for potential technical innovation. Between ongoing conflicts with Russia and dealing with the consequence of previous leadership, the future of the Ukraine is largely dependent on establishing relationships in the U.S. Considering the major presence of ethnic Ukrainians in Chicago, Levus encouraged the MWRD to work with the Ukrainian delegation to promote water quality issues in the Ukraine.
Kiev, which is a sister city to Chicago, has also experienced several challenges in managing storm water. President Mariyana Spyropoulos explained the value of green infrastructure in managing stormwater.
In the Ukraine, the other challenge is investing in infrastructure to improve water quality and eliminate algae blooms. President Spyropoulos explained that the MWRD is in the process of building the world's largest wastewater phosphorus recovery system with the potential to return 10,000 tons of usable phosphorus per year and eliminate it from waterways.
The delegation met with MWRD Chairman of Finance Frank Avila for a tour of the Stickney WRP in Cicero, Ill. Avila worked with Paul Bandriwsky, vice president of the Illinois Div. of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, to arrange the tour.
"We hope we were able to give them a different perspective of how we manage our abundant but critical supply of water," Avila said. "The Great Lakes is home to more than 20% of the world's surface freshwater. It's important that we are leaders in improving our water quality among the international community."
Source: Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
